I misspoke in the video when I told my son that hydrogen allowed me to advance the timing. Actually hydrogen burns faster than CO so optimum timing would be less advanced than for straight CO. The water mist does make a difference in speed/power. I haven’t worked out the best amount of water or exhaust recycling for coolest reaction temperature that still gives good power. I expect a different sweet spot for highway vs. stop and go driving.

Hi Bruce. I have being following your project and ended up amaizing!!
For my own comprehension and for other crew members of this site I made a rought drawing of what it seem to me how your system works. I am submitting this drawing to you and if you wish you are more than welcome to make any corrections, suggestions, etc.
Trully yours.
Eddy Ramos.

The “adjustable from cabin gate valve” goes on the “filtered air” side of the gas mixer (turbinator).

The 3-way valve connecting the reactor to the flare, alternately connects the flare to the gas mixer (turbinator) through a bypass hose with its own shutoff valve. This bypass function fills the system with chargas before starting.

The “IGNITOR OR CLEANING PORT?” has a shutoff valve that is actually open while running and is the entry point for the water mist.

Your pipe from the exhaust to the air inlet needs a gate valve to control the amount of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR).

Finally, the backfire check valves are actually in a chamber that connects the throttle body to the intake manifold.

Just for completeness, please note that the nozzle or tuyere is a thick-walled copper tube.

Hi Bruce.
Thank’s for the quick response. I believe some of the crew members of this site will greately appreciate it.
I have corrected the 5 items you have pointed out, please check it out. Fill free to make any further correction/suggestions.
Regarding the 6th item, justo to make this great I will suggest you, if you wish, to make a technical list of the different parts. For example:
The nozzle is a copper pipe outside diammeter of 1 1/2 “, inside diammeter of 1”, meaning that the pipe wall is 1/4" thick, with four 7/16" holes tilted 45 degrees for easy cleaning with a poaker.
The pipe inside and at the top of the reactor is galvanized steel of 1" diammeter. Same kind of pipe from the cyclon to the cooler/coalescer. From the cooling/coalescer the pipe is plastic of 1" diammeter… etc.
And at last to make this just perfect I will suggest you, again if you wish,

is to give some procedures about how you star to gasifier, run the systems and how to stop it.
One of my concerns is: When you run only half of the the reactor load, and after it has cools down, let’s say next day. You just add more “fresh” charcoal and start the reactor with the charcoal left over (=plain carbon) since last trip or you empty the full reactor, all the way to the buttom and reloaded with “fresh” charcoal?? I am asking this because somebody mentioned that it is very hard to star the charcoal gasifier with charcoal that has being left over (= plain carbon). Meaning that plain carbon is harder to star than “fresh” or “unused” charcoal.
Truly yours.
Eddy Ramos

I second Garry. The skech is amezeing. It wuld be a great idea if we make a topic just for skeches, where every sucsessfull build wuld be drawn in schematic and cross section like this one. If Eddy wuld be in for a group project, l am more thain happy to document and skech my Mercedes for him to skech. I know he already had one for Dons Tracker, so there is allso Garrys Ranger, Davids tractor…

Beautiful sketches. Really close this time. Move the blower to the other side of the three way valve and reverse the direction of the bypass arrow. The bypass hose connects to the inlet manifold so that everything is filled with gas including the mixer and throttle body. The blower first draws gas directly from the reactor until good gas is produced then the valve is switched to draw gas through the cyclone, cooler, filter, mixer, and throttle body. This little trick keeps startup moisture from fouling my system components. I have a shutoff valve on the bypass just below the three way valve to turn off the system flare and prevent air from being drawn back to the manifold from the flare and blower.

Yes, I too have noticed the phenomena of harder starting on charcoal left in the reactor. I poke up through my nozzle ports and scrape or vacuum out the dust that falls. I’m hoping that Kristijan’s slotted vacuum nozzle will work to clean out charcoal dust from around the tuyere before refilling. The accumulating charcoal dust may be the culprit. The problem is not “plain carbon.” High temperature plain carbon charcoal is the best fuel and will give good gas immediately.

I am a very big believer in Skizzes or sketches. You have done an exceptional job. You are lucky that Bruce is so acceptable to you doing this. I have mis-interpreted the written description and have been reprimanded for making changes to the design. Not all people are so willing to help you get the drawing correct. Again, an excellent job of making a visulization of Bruce’s build. TomC

One suggestion - do you think the turbinator is needed? It should be possible to size the conduit for laminar, or turbulent flow. Actually by the time the mix arrives in a cylinder, I doubt it could remain unmixed.

The turbinator is NOT essential. My Toyota pick up ran fine without one. However, I came across a research paper claiming significant performance improvements for producer gas engines when using a tangential air/gas swirling chamber. Also this MG engine doesn’t have the greatest intake geometry. So, I decided to give this a try to eliminate the reported laminar flows where such mixing is absent.

I would be interested in learning about the conduit sizing solution. I was barely able to squeeze a mixing chamber and throttle body into my space. Tell me more about what you have in mind.

Porting, cam changes and increased compression ratio can also improve performance. Of course a supercharger would be best.